Letters to the Editor
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WHATEVER FERRARO RESIGNS
I am just so sick and tired of all posters. What do the opinions mean anyway?
Your opinion always favors your candidate no matter what the topic is . This makes most posters opinionated and biased, and the post loses its validity.
Do these opinions sway any votes to the other candidate? I doubt it.
Whoever does the EDITOR choices seems to favor one side or the other.
It seems strange that a comment made in Torrance Ca took five days for any comments from anyone.
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@ RealityCounts
Would anyone like to defend this? If Ferraro's comments were racist, what is this?
They may not have been racist, but I do think they were stupid. Does Ferraro really think that folks like me who support Obama do so because of this skin color? (Please see my post above.) We can't make the judgment that he is our preferred candidate on other, more substantial grounds?
I suppose there may be some who vote for Obama because he is black, but it can also be said that some are voting for Hillary just because she's a woman. Should someone in the Obama campaign feel it's all right to say that Hillary is only where she is because she's a woman?
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Hey RealityCounts
All this racism stuff is a red herring. Trying to prove/disprove that is a big distraction, and largely pointless, IM!HO
The other side of the coin to "Obama is winning because he is black" is "Hillary is losing because she is a woman".
I will now await the bad vibes.
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CRL & Uncle Fester
Thanks for the responses, but I'm not so sure racism is a red herring. For better or worse (mostly worse) it (along with sexism) is and will continue to be part of this campaign story. Much as we would like to believe we, especially democrats, are beyond it, it's obviously just not true. And, btw, that goes for both sides. But I am still curious as to response to that video. If anyone thinks Obama is not going to have to address it, think again. It is already being used by republicans and I'm not so sure it can be easily brushed aside. As I said, it troubles me and I just wonder if I am the exception.
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@Reality Missing Links, redefinition and back to the future?
It looks like your link is now broken :(. Yes, there is racism and sexism.
I agree that it was inevitable that all this stuff would boil to the surface.
And we can keep score and keep score about keeping score and try to add everything up and keep going around and around the wheel. Or we can step off the wheel. That's the fish I will follow, not the bloody herring.
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They do matter, but
Hi RealityCounts. It's not that I think racism or sexism don't matter. We are clearly not yet a society that is either race or gender blind. I just think that Ferraro's comments were stupid because she should have known they would be, at the least, racially charged and, for many of us, insulting.
To me, it looks like the age-old problem of letting one's enthusiasm for one's preferred candidate get the better of one's judgment. Here in the letters, we've all seen supporters of particular candidates, become pretty much unhinged in their attempts to support their choice. I have (sort of) come to expect that behavior in an anonymous forum like this, but expect political pros to know better when making public statements. Why they get excited enough to forget is a mystery.
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Uncle Fester & CRL
I'll try that link again, but if it doesn't work just go to youtube and search for Jeremiah Wright. I can foresee this becoming part of a republican campaign ad in the future. If McCain is "above it", I'm sure there's a 527 out there that isn't. I would like to know if you think Obama will be able to defend this or brush it aside. If you still can't find it, I'm sure it will re-surface at a later date. Thanks for the civility.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPjVp3PLnVs&eurl=http://redstate.com/
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One can support Obama and defend Ferraro
First, I have been and remain an enthusiastic Obama supported from the beginning. That said, it seems to me that Ferraro's statement is accurate beyond question. Obama's perceived 'race' has contributed to his extradinary rise in popular awareness and approval.
Would he have been given a contract to write his first book, the remarkable memoirs, if he had merely been the first Hawaiian to edit the Harvard Law Review? Would he have been selected keynote speaker if he been one of many rising members of the Illinois House? Would have have collected the millions of votes he has were there not a wide spread anticipatory thrill to the prospect of voting for a qualified, moving and electable black candidate? Would he be who and what he is but for the experience of growing up in a multi-racial multi-cultural environment?
The answers are obvious, and therefore it really cannot be denied that at this remarkable moment in history, Obama has obtained some advantage from his genetic heritage.
Ferraro did not say that he is where he is only because he is black. She said that were he not black, he would be in a different place. Does anybody doubt that?
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@Reality Counts The Rev
Thanks for the new (?) link. I think the short answer is that I wouldn't vote for that guy. He's old school, defining problems the old way. Not that a lot of his points still don't have currency. But I think we are in new times and old problems need new solutions.
And I think this notion of a purity test should be resisted. Do you renounce Satan? And his works? And Farrakan and the crazy Rev Wright?
I listen to a lot people who are crazy (www.969fmtalk.com 3-7pm EST). Does that make me authoritarian?
The 527's are going to after whoever wins the nomination.
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@Uncle Fester
About you listening to the crazy people...no, it doesn't make you an authoritarian.
If you only listen to people you agree with, it may be satisfying, but you don't actually learn anything. Besides, the flamethrowers often provide better entertainment value.
I like to read about people we tend to consider evil. I have bios of people like Stalin, Goring, Lenin, the double bio of Hitler/Stalin because the examination of what these people did and why is interesting to me. I don't happen to like authoritarianism in either its right or left-wing forms as a system of government.
I'm an atheist and I have religious art and texts (two 'Books of hours as well as icons) in my house. I find them beautiful and worthy of admiration as works of art and literature. Doesn't mean I believe in God.